There are many advantages to moving communications to the cloud, but it’s a complex endeavor. As we covered in our last blog post, you need to consider the advantages and disadvantages of on-premise and cloud-based solutions. You also need to understand the differences between public and private cloud platforms.
But what if you have decided that a cloud-based communication platform is best for your organization—how do you choose between public and private platforms? How do you narrow down your choices of specific products? Working through the following considerations will help you find the answers you need.
Advanced Considerations for Cloud-Based Unified Communications
Phone Numbers
Who owns your existing phone numbers and what are your contractual obligations? Depending on the contract with your carrier, you could have years to go in your commitment, and you could be subject to penalties for going in a different direction. We have been able to bring a carrier relationship to the cloud for many of our customers—but it all depends on the existing agreement, and this may be aided by selecting a private cloud solution. If you’re unsure, reach out to us for help.
If it does turn out that you need to move your phone numbers to a new carrier, you’ll need to work through porting and timeflow of porting. This is more comprehensive than call forwarding—it’s a complete transfer.
User Needs
How many users do you have, and what features do those users need? This could be as simple as determining if all users need voicemail, or could span different classes of specialists that require unique capabilities. Generally speaking, the more variety in user needs, the more likely that your organization may require a private cloud solution.
Support and Administration
Do you have the internal personnel for communications support and administration? A public cloud service is going to have a help desk and ticketing system for these functions, whereas a private cloud service may not. If the answer to the above question is yes, that does not necessarily mean that a public cloud solution isn’t for you—those team members may have more value to offer outside of supporting communications. But if the answer is no, that could mean a public cloud option is the most cost-effective choice.
Contact Center
Do you have a contact center, and if so, do you need advanced functionalities? While there are a range of options for contact centers in both public and private cloud platforms, the former are generally much more fixed in terms of functionalities. If you require integrations with advanced applications, like Google AI hooks, a public cloud solution may not have the contact center functionalities that you need.
Connectivity
What connectivity do you expect to go from your building or buildings to the cloud provider? Not all internet connections are created equally, especially for delivering high quality voice calls. Bandwidth is important, but it is only one integral aspect. Jitter, latency, hardware speed, packet loss, firewalls, and more factors into call quality over an internet connection.
Connectivity can make or break an experience. A voice readiness assessment is critical because many internet connections are not as fast or reliable in actual usage for voice calls as they appear to be on paper.
Proven Cloud Communications Platforms
At IPC Tech, we have worked with customers who use virtually every major communications setup and platform around. We recommend the following as they have proven themselves, time and again, to deliver excellent performance and value to a wide variety of organizations.
Public Cloud: RingCentral
RingCentral has always been a leader in unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS), but after becoming Mitel’s preferred UCaaS partner in November of 2021, they have become the top choice for many businesses that are making the move to the cloud. You see the details in a previous blog post, but the important thing to note is that Mitel’s PBX phone systems can integrate seamlessly with RingCentral MVP to achieve advanced functionalities.
RingCentral MVP™
MVP is RingCentral’s premier public cloud UCaaS platform. At its core, it offers internal and external calling, instant messaging, and video conferencing in one subscription-based service. There are a number of add-ons and integrations, such as RingCentral for Microsoft Teams, waiting rooms, and webinars, that can help tailor the public cloud experience for your business. Critically in today’s world of hybrid and remote work, these functionalities are available on desktop phones, computers, and mobile devices.
RingCentral Contact Center
RingCentral’s cloud-based contact center integrates seamlessly with MVP and offers a robust set of features that satisfy the needs of many businesses. In terms of in-bound calls, RingCentral provides skills-based routing, agent scheduling optimization, advanced reporting, and more. For outbound communications, RingCentral provides a range of campaign dialers, productivity tools, and scripting options to make campaigns more efficient and profitable.
RingCentral Contact Center offers omnichannel customer communication across voice, instant messaging, social media applications, and online review platforms. It also integrates with leading CRMs and can be connected to proprietary CRMs.
Private Cloud: MiCloud Flex
Built primarily on Google Cloud, but also featuring elements of AWS and Azure, MiCloud Flex is a very unique private cloud offering. It offers much of the customization and control of an on-premise system, but offers the advantages of subscription-based UCaaS.
RingCentral MiCloud Flex
Like RingCentral MVP, MiCloud Flex offers inbound and outbound voice calls, team collaboration tools, and video conferencing from desk phones, computers, and mobile devices. It also provides seamless integration with a wide range of apps and CRMs and includes advanced contact center capabilities. What sets it apart is the control and flexibility. From determining upgrade and maintenance windows, to mix-and-match service plans and beyond, you can design your communications platform around your business processes.
Get Support From an Expert in Cloud-Based Communications
As we have covered in this and the previous post, there are myriad considerations when moving voice communications to the cloud. Ultimately, the choice between public or private and the selection of a specific UCaaS product depends entirely on your organization’s unique needs.
IPC Tech Can Ensure It’s Done Properly and Within Budget
As an expert in cloud communications, we have the experience to work with you and your entire team to make the best choice and ensure that it is implemented effectively and efficiently.